Laundry Room
by GallaudetLurker
Summary: Robbie and Jade in a laundry room. Nuff said. No, it's not what you think. Robbie/Jade RADE


**A/N:** Here's my attempt at a 'friendship' oneshot for Rade Week, although it's more of an 'acquaintance' thing, but meh. I typed it all out in like 20 minutes or so, lol. Hope you like.

**Disclaimer:** _Victorious_ belongs to Dan Schneider.

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**Laundry Room **

_By GallaudetLurker_

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Robbie Shapiro heaved out a grunt as his arms trembled slightly under the sheer weight of the overfilled laundry basket, stepping out - more like _hobbling_ - out of the elevator on the basement floor of his dorm.

Laundry day at UCLA was his favorite day of the week, of which Robbie would drag his dirty laundry to the laundry room located eight floors above his dorm room, stuff his clothes in one of the washing machines, pour detergent in, insert some coins (he lost his laundry card for the third time), and sit back and relax for twenty-six _blissful_ minutes.

Note the sarcasm.

The laundry room, ironically, was actually dirty and gritty, with dirt everywhere. Filthy clothes were usually sprewn around, mostly on the counter where students were supposed to fold their clothes and the like. The washing and drying machines, whenever they weren't malfunctioning or breaking down (Robbie learned the hard way once when one of the machines simply filled up with detergent water, completely soaking his clothes and the dryers were occupied), were usually full.

And this was in a dorm that housed over 200 students and had over twenty washers and dryers.

Feeling his non-existent biceps ache as he struggled to hold up the laundry basket, Robbie grunted as he opened the door with his shoulder and entered the room.

And nearly tripped over his clumsy feet. The laundry room was empty, save for one person. A shapely figure of a brunette girl who was putting her clothes in one of the washers. On the weekends, the laundry room was usually fairly full, sometimes with graduate students, sometimes with immature jocks who loved to pick on him.

Such as 'dunking' him in one of the washing machines...which was not something Robbie would've loved to reminisce about.

Oh yes, Robbie remembered. There was a major bash taking place near the dorm. Just about everyone attended, and was probably having the time of their lives. Except him, and apparently this girl.

The girl didn't seem to notice that he was in the same room as her, or plainly ignored him if she did. Robbie was used to it, though, being ignored by girls - beautiful girls with curvy figures and their tendency to engage in wild sex with their boyfriends (or so as he heard from Rex).

Robbie made his way to the first row of washing machines, groaning to himself when he noticed that at least were full and the rest broken - for the billionth time. He'd forgotten (again) that there were such a thing as graduate students, who tended to focus more on their studies (God bless them), although a fairly few did go out.

A cursive glance at the washing machines behind him elicited another groan from him. They were, once again, full or broken, with only a couple available. That meant he would have to let his wet clothes languish in the washing machines and wait for anyone, if they came at all, to pick up their dried and wrinkled clothes.

And the last two available washers would be occupied by the girl in the room. Robbie let out a sigh.

Such was the life of Robbie Shapiro at UCLA.

Shaking his head, Robbie made his way toward the second row, where the dark-haired girl was located. For some reason, despite the fact that he couldn't see her face and thus was unable to recognize her on the basis of her body, Robbie felt his stomach clench in nervousness as his heart began to beat up a little.

He usually got this feeling whenever he'd went to one of his courses, Creative Art-

The girl turned her head, and Robbie just about seized up, his heart exceeding its figurative heartbeat speed limit.

It was her.

Jade West.

The girl who was in his Creative Arts class.

The girl who he secretly had a crush on.

He wondered how he didn't recognize her at first.

Her blue eyes widened for an instant upon seeing him. As he maintained eye contact with her, Robbie's arms was trembling too much that he accidentally dropped his laundry basket. The basket impacted the ground with a '_thunk_!', making his detergent tumble out, and some of his dirty clothes, especially his briefs spill, onto the floor.

Feeling his cheeks flush with embarassment, Robbie immediately gathered his dirty clothes from the fairly dirty floor, sweeping away the dirt with distaste. Chancing another glance at the girl, Robbie could see her roll her eyes before turning back to her tasks.

He felt crestfallen, cursing himself for his horrible luck with girls, especially girls who was beautiful as Jade West. Still reeling from embarassment, and feeling particularly self-conscious, Robbie picked his basket up and proceeded to look around at the third row, trying not to look over at her.

At least Rex wasn't there with him right now, Robbie thought to himself as he scanned over the washers. Not only would Rex never ever let him live it down, but he would probably flirt with Jade. (Not that he would actually succeed, given that from what Robbie observed - not that he's not a creepy stalker like his other friend, Sinjin, mind you - Jade had something of a cold personality and was generally known as the 'Ice Queen'.

Maybe that was why she was, surprisingly, still single despite her popularity.

He let out a sigh and slumped his shoulders as he saw the third row was, once again, unavailable. Luck had cruelly mocked him once again. The only thing to do was check the second row. Where Jade was in.

Nervousness coursed through him at the thought of having to stand near his crush and not make a complete fool out of himself - _again_.

Trying to muster up his courage, Robbie swallowed a lump that was forming in his dry throat as he walked over to the aforementioned row, feeling his legs become jelly with every step he took.

Success! Robbie had managed to make his way to the first machine in the row without tripping over his feet or dropping his basket or anything else. And even better was that the washers were available! Setting his basket down on the floor, and his detergent on the top of the machine, Robbie proceeded to do the task, trying not to let his eyes wander over to Jade.

For some reason, he could feel her eyes pore into him, and this made him feel even more nervous and self-conscious.

"Chill out, you look like you're about to pop a vein."

Robbie blinked at the words that came out of Jade's mouth, and turned his head to her. She was smirking a little, an empty basket next to her, having apparently finished her laundry.

"Um...uh..." Robbie tried to muster something, something, to reply to the gorgeous girl standing off to the side of him. He hadn't really talked to her before, only admired her from afar and wishing that he would at least have a half-decent chance at getting with her.

Some first impression.

"Um...t-that's because I-I'm trying not to." Robbie's words tumbled out of his mouth in a stammer. He inwardly cursed himself for sounding so...so...lame, and having absolutely zero talent at talking with girls.

What surprised him was that the ends of Jade's lips momentarily curled up in slight amusement before she rolled her eyes.

"You need to come up with something better than that." She said dryly, a hint of derision in her voice. Robbie nodded, mentally beating himself up once again, as he lifted the top up.

Silence descended upon the laundry room once again as Robbie tried to focus on the task at hand, putting his clothes into the washer before pouring detergent on them (he thought he had put too much, but then he couldn't tell), and searching around in his pockets for his quarters, panicking for a moment that he might have left them in his dorm again only to heave out a sigh of relief when he found them.

"You're not going to the bash?" Robbie accidentally dropped his quarters. Feeling himself blushing once again, Robbie let out a "Sorry!" as he got on his knees and scrambled around for the dropped coins.

Getting on his feet, Robbie turned to Jade who had an unimpressed expression on her face...although he thought he saw a flicker of amusement in her eyes. "S-sorry," Robbie said as he cupped the quarters in his hand. "What w-was, um, the question again...?"

Jade sighed. "I said, 'you're not going to the bash?'" She repeated, slightly leaning against the machine.

After a moment of hesitation, Robbie shook his head. "No, I'm not going..." He was surprised that he was able to speak fairly clearly, much less having a semi-decent conversation with his crush. "Y-you?" He asked as he began to deposit his coins into the coin slot on the machine.

Jade raised her eyebrows. "Why not?" She inquired after a couple of moments.

Robbie shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure...I guess I didn't get invited..." He said as he closed the top lid and pressed one of the buttons, making the machine vibrate.

Jade surveyed him once again, her expression unreadable. After a moment, she said, "To answer your question...bashes aren't really my thing."

Raising his eyebrows, Robbie was surprised, not only at the fact that the usually cold Jade was even talking to him, but at the fact that parties weren't her thing.

"R-really?"

There was apparently a tone of disbelief in his voice as Jade narrowed her eyes a little. "Yes. What do you think I do, party all day and night long? Is that what you think?"

Feeling panic jolt through him at the accusatory tone in Jade's voice, Robbie scrambled to make a reply, not wanting to antagonize Jade and make her hate him or something.

"N-no, I wasn't s-saying that! I was just, um, surprised, that's all!" Upon seeing Jade raise her eyebrows, Robbie stammered on, "It's j-just, um, that bashes are, uh, the raddest thing!" He inwardly winced, his tendency to say something really lame was surfacing once again.

Jade blinked. "'Raddest thing'? Are you serious?" She snorted. Robbie could do little but nod, feeling his self-confidence drop a little. Silence reigned once again, this time slightly awkward.

"Well," Jade continued as she picked up her empty laundry basket. "I'm gonna go." She said as she walked past Robbie. Robbie felt like his self-confidence had taken another nosedrive, he had probably freaked Jade out...

For some reason, Jade stopped in her tracks and letting out what sounded like a sigh, she turned around.

"Listen up," Jade sounded like she was forcing these words out of her mouth. "I'm not asking you to hang out and become best friends or something so dont get your hopes up, but...if you, um, dont get invited to bashes in the future...I can do something about that. Because you look like you don't have a social life." Although the last part was an insult, there was a smirk on Jade's lips.

"R-really?" Robbie felt his heart swell with hope. Maybe there was...

"Like I said, don't gets your hopes up." Jade repeated. "So...see you later. I guess."

With that, she left the laundry room, leaving Robbie to look after her.

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**A/N:** Yeah, Jade and Robbie never met at Hollywood Arts or went to different high schools. I think I did okay on this...the dialogue was meh, but this is probably the first Rade oneshot that I've written that didn't have them kissing (yet?).

Perhaps I could continue this? Let me know in a review.


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